Los Angeles Film Production Finally Stabilizes Above Pre-Pandemic Levels

variety.com:

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorFilmLA announced today that it expects to see production return to pre-pandemic levels within the next 12 months.After posting three consecutive record-breaking quarters, local filming in the second quarter (“Q2”) of 2022 was down by -5.8% over the same period last year.

From April through June, FilmLA recorded a total of 9,220 Shoot Days (SD)* compared to 9,791 in Q2 2021. Local filmmakers achieved an all-time quarterly high of 10,780 SD in Q4 2021, moving on to set a new Q1 record of 9,832 SD earlier this year.Local production still surpassed pre-pandemic levels; finishing 6.8% ahead of Q2 2019 (with 8,632 SD) and 2.7% ahead of Q2 2018 (with 8,978 SD).“We expected we would see production return to pre-pandemic levels sometime within the year, and now here we are,” observed FilmLA President Paul Audley. “Resilient in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, and with industry leaders taking steps to protect both worker and community safety, we have confidence in the film industry’s ability to sustain local production at or above its historic levels.” Feature film production saw a 9% increase for Q2 with 898 shoot days.

The feature production activity was directly tied to the California Film & Television Tax Credit Program, overseen by the California Film Commission.Among the feature films shooting during the quarter included “Barbie” (Warner Bros.), “Being Mortal” (Searchlight Pictures) an Untitled Jonah Hill Project (Netflix) and the remake of “White Men Can’t Jump” (20th Century Studios).Despite the increase, the number lies at -16.4% below the category’s five-year average.Television continues to be a driving force in local production.